Adjustable retainer for ball-bearings.



S; SCHNEIDER.

ADJUSTABLE RETAINER FOB. BALL BEARINGS. APPLIoATIon FILED AUG. 3, 1910.

985,289;` Patented Feb. 2s, 1911.

, spread or in locking position. Fig. l is a- 4Urnrnn sirarnsv PATENT oratori.

srizrnartl seras-naman,l or cHrcAGo, AILLrNors.

ADJUSTABLE RETAINER roR'BALL-BEARINGs.

To all whom it may concern.: Y

' lle it known that I. H'rnrzix Scnxrnnzn, a subject of the lhnperor of Germany. and residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have inventeda new and useful Improvement in-fidjustable Retainers for Ball-Bearings, of which the following is a complete specification.

The main objects of this invention are to provide a retainer for ball bearings 4,which is capable ot' being adjusted to hold balls of d ili'erent. sizes: to provide a retainer which is so constructtal that the balls may be easily inserted or removed without injury to the retainer: to jn-ovide a retainer which will produce but a minimum amount o'f friction on the balls: and' to provide a retainer of 'very simple' and light construction.

specific construction embodying-the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which: Y

Figure 1 is an enlarged, fragmentary side 4elevation otfone side -of the retainer with balls carried therein. Fig. Q is a similar viewl of the opposite side of the retainer. Fig. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary perspective. view of the retainer with the jaws plan view of the blank for the retainer after it has been punched ont before it hasbeen formed. Fig. 5 is a section taken on liuc 5-5 of Fig. l.

lu the construction shown, the retainer l is formed-from a blank of sheet metal which 1s in'st stamped or punched toprovlde a llat annular piece with radially disposed,

elongated apertures therein which form the ball seats 2 in the completed retainer. The

'inner and outer edges 3 and 4' of the piece are scalloped out between the apertures.I thereby leavingg curved strips ot met-al 5 and 6 at the ends of the apertures which provide the bottoms ot the ball seats.Y The apertures arc rounded at their ends and their outer ends are larger than their inner ends.

'lhe apertures taper from their outer ends lo a point near their inner ends, and the latter are enlarged to a greater width than the small part ot the tapered portion. The

portions 7 between the vapertures are provided with longitudinal slits S. The blank is thenfm'med into an annular channel b v bending the edges 3 and t in the samel di rection. as shown in Fig. 3. This brings the curvedportions 5 and 6 into place to j Specificationof Letters Patent. Application filed ngust 3, 1910. Serial No. 575,259.

form the bottoms ot' the ball seats or apertures 2, while theV portions 7 between said seats separate or space the balls the. desired distance apart. The slits 8 divide the portions 7 into U-shaped locking jaws 9 which, when the balls 10 are placed in the seats, are adapted to be spread apart. so. as to anse them to partially close the ball seats and overlap the balls, asshown in Fig. '1, and thereby hold the balls in place.

The operation of the construction shown is as follows: The jaws 9 on each spacing portion are normally close together so that. the balls may pass between `the portions 7 to enter t-he seats where they rest upon and between the. curved portions 5 and 6. The

apart thereby throwing one jaw of each pair over the adjacent ball and holding the ball in the retainer.: The balls must be of .`snllicient.diameter so that they will project through the ends of the seats and beyond the inner and outer sides ot the retainer, but will notl pass out of the retainer through said ends. Any size of ball which issmall enough to pass into the seat before the jaws are spread and which 'is large enough to project- :trom thesides of the retainer, may be used in the retainer. The jaws may always be spread far enough to bring them into relatively close proximity to the balls, whether the balls be large or small, thereby making the retainer adjustable to different sizes of balls. The retainer thus formed has only four points of contact on each ball, one on each curved portion 5-6 and'one on each overlapping jaw. The friction of the balls in the retainer is therefore very small or of a nearly negligible quantity.

flic-n it is desired to remove a ball from the retainer or insert a new ball in the retainer, it is only necessary to close the jaws adjacent to the particular seat to permit the ball to pass out or in. 'When the ball is in the seat the jaws may be again spread to lock the ball in place.v

While I'have herein shown and-described but one specific embodiment of the invention it will be understood that various details of the construct-ion shown may be varied or omitted without departing from the scope of the claims..

I claim:

ratenaa nel. es, 1911.

jaws on each spacing portion are then spread l. A retainer for ball bearings, comprischannel, seats formed in -the rsides -of the of the chan-nel; angl a pair. of jaws betiifeenf adjacent-seats anfladapte'd, whenspread5 t' hold the balls in place. y 2. Aretainer fox-'ball hearings, comprising an annular chnnehjseats in the sides of the channel and a pair of U shaped Jaws between ailjacent'seats =and adapted t overlap the-balls in the seats."

3. An adjustable retainer for ball bearings, coxnprsin'g an 'annular -sheet' metal channel and opening through the'bottom Witnesses thereof, and U shaped jaws formed 'on the bottom of the channel and adapted'to be adjusted to and from each other toret'a'in vary- 15 'mg sizes of ballsntheseats. f A

In witness whereof I have hereunto sub-v scribed vmy name in Athe presence of two4 witnesses.

4flopies of this petent mayv be'obtained fonve cents each; by addressing the Commissioner lof liatent's',` l WafShillgtovn, 110: 

